Fire Putting All Blame on LeBron

It's going to be a long off-season for LeBron.

It's both easy and justifiable to hate LeBron James, especially now that the Heat failed to win a championship. While LeBron does deserve a share of the blame for Miami's loss since he disappeared in the 4th quarter a few times and seemed reluctant to take some big shots, all the LeBron haters need to realize that this loss wasn't entirely the King's fault. Here are three reasons to take some of the heat off James:

Miami Has Roster Holes: It was pretty widely acknowledged in the preseason that beyond the Big 3, Miami didn't have much of a team. Turns out it was true. In 4/6 games, Miami had at least one starter who finished the game with 0 points and Dallas' bench outscored Miami's bench in all but two games. In three games Miami got fewer than 20 points from its bench, and even in its best performance (40 points in game 5), Miami only outscored Dallas' bench by 8 points. 

Dirk Dominated: As much as some people want to make this series about LeBron's failure, it was really about Dirk Nowitzki's outstanding play. Except for missing a contested game-tying shot at the buzzer in game 2, Dirk did pretty much everything his team needed. Most importantly, he stepped up his game: Dirk averaged 23 points per game and seven rebounds per game during the regular season; he exceeded his ppg average in every game but two and his rpg average in all but one.

Miami is Wade's Team: If any one player should be the subject of finger pointing, it's Dwyane Wade. He recruited LeBron and Chris Bosh, and several Heat players have said over the course of the season that Wade is the top guy. As early as November 2009, ESPN reported that LeBron said he could play with Wade because "I don't need my own team.'' More recently, Wade said: "I want (the ball late in the fourth quarter). LeBron knew that." Wade outscored LeBron in 4/6 games, and led the team in scoring in those four games. In the two games LeBron outscored Wade, he did so by a total of six points. 

Yes, there is a lot to dislike about LeBron. Yes, he scored eight points in one game. Yes, he asked for a lot of this criticism. But in the end, James only shares the blame for the series loss and putting it all on him is almost as bad a choice as "The Decision."